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using This is Not a Valentine in speech therapy
Frequent Speech Sounds:

​​/v/ initial
/l/ medial
/n/ initial

Themes:

Valentine’s Day
gift giving
love
caring about someone

Book Details:
Diverse Characters: Yes
Age Recommendation: Elementary, Late Elementary

This is Not a Valentine

By Carter Higgins

This book is not a valentine. It doesn’t have lacey edges or sugary hearts. But it is full of lucky rocks, secret hiding spots, and gumball machine treasures. This is a book about waiting in line and wishing for cinnamon buns. About recognizing that if you care so much about someone not thinking you care, maybe you really do. But wait—isn’t that exactly what love is about? Maybe this book is sort of a valentine after all. A testament to handmade, wacky, bashful, honest love—sure to win over the hearts of all readers—this offering from debut picture book author Carter Higgins and children’s book veteran Lucy Ruth Cummins is the perfect gift to celebrate every relationship, from parent to child, sibling to sibling, partner to partner, crush to crush.

This genuine Valentine’s Day book can be used in speech therapy to address social/emotional issues like trying to tell someone you like them. It is also great for inferencing and for sequencing as well as for describing! Discover more of the speech and language teaching concepts for using This is Not a Valentine in speech therapy below: 

Key Teaching Concepts

Narrative Structure:

descriptive sequence

Narrative Concepts:

vocabulary
sequencing
illustration study
inferencing
social/emotional
adjectives
repetitive text

Sequencing:

order of gifts he gives her

Vocabulary:

bushel, gems, treasure chest, opera, cursive, swoopy, mush, caboose, cooties, tumble, cavities, edges, dainty, lace, stew, hollow

Social/Emotional:

He is nervous and tries to act “cool” by telling her that his gifts are not a valentine, though his gifts and words have lots of meaning.

Grammar:

adjectives

Text Features:

repetitive text

Inferencing:

Why do you think he is telling her that it is not a valentine?
How do you think he feels about her?
What is she thinking when he hands her the dandelion?
How does she feel when he hands her the ring?
How do you think he feels?
Why does he keep telling her that it is not a valentine?
What do you think he meant by the things in the card?
What do you think he meant when he gave her a frog?
What do you think he meant when he gave her the rock?
What do you think he meant when he gave her the bell?
How do they feel at the end?

If you are interested in seeing other Valentine’s Day books to use in therapy, then check out the Narrative Teaching Points Book List for a printable copy.

If you are interested in seeing other Valentine’s Day books to use in therapy, then check out the Narrative Teaching Points Book List for a printable copy.